This theoretical-practical dissertation has as its central theme the videographic
self-portrait. Particularly, concerns the question of the possibility to creating a selfportrait without the ability of self-recognition, as it happens with Alzheimer’s patients. To verify how a self-portrait can fail, it is necessary to realize what defines it
and what its problems are, as well as understand how the use of video can promote this
theme. It deals first with the theme of the duplicity of the image and the question of
existing an obsession with the double, verifiable in the desire for exploration of the
identity only possible through the self-portrait. In the search for that identity the
performance is defined as an ideal mean of exploration. Then it comes the study of the
audiovisual medium and its unique features of time, space and sound, allowing a further
interconnection with the narcissism inherent in human beings. It is through the
understanding of various-works by artists such as Bruce Nauman and Marina
Abramovic that the relationship between the self-portrait and the video is defined.
The intend of the practical work is to use these characteristics of the video that increase
narcissism, and the performance practice where one can get a glimpse of the uniqueness
of the subject, to analyze the self-portrait created by someone that does not recognize
himself